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Members of the staff at Pro West Wall Products, Inc. pose for a photo at the new Dyer-Kelly Elementary School, one of the company’s signature projects in Northern California. (Back row, left to right) Sergio Rivera, Ryan Komula, Jason Martin and Bobby Joe Hernandez. (Front row, left to right) Natalie Ullrich, Kristen Dachtler and Christen Tripp.

The stage face at the new Dyer-Kelly Elementary School in Sacramento County, California. Participation in this high-profile project helped to put Pro West Wall Products, Inc. on the map.

There is a saying that only three things are needed to rise to the top in life: talent, ambition and initiative. For an entrepreneur like Ryan Komula, these innate characteristics provide the strategy and drive necessary to achieve his business vision for Pro West Wall Products, Inc., a specialty carpentry contracting firm based in West Sacramento, California.

“We specialize primarily in FRP (fiberglass-reinforced plastic) paneling, but also work with laminate, stainless steel and decorative paneling, various types of door/wall protection, and Division 10 specialties including toilet partitions/accessories, fire extinguishers and cabinets, lockers and more,” says Komula, who serves as President of the company he launched in August 2016. He adds, “Our primary geographic service area covers all of northern California. We’ve also performed work in the Sacramento Valley and San Francisco Bay areas as well as Seattle, Washington. We’re currently in the process of getting licensed in Nevada.”

The company started out doing installation work and has evolved to also become a reliable distributor for the abovementioned products. According to Komula, general contractors and others place their trust in Pro West Wall Products because of its positive reputation. The team is proud of its growing base of customers, most of which are repeat clients and referrals. Many clients use Pro West Wall Products exclusively for their FRP or Division 10 needs.

“We’ve established ourselves as industry experts and are building a reputation of honesty, integrity and commitment on every project we participate in,” he says. “What differentiates us is our unwavering dedication to deliver quality services and products no matter what it takes. We stand behind our work and we’ve never had any problems with customers calling to tell us we didn’t do a good job.”

Company Beginnings

Such high standards have been integral to the company’s identity since it opened. What began as a one-man operation has grown to around 20 employees, including Jason Martin, who is the Foreman and Komula’s business partner. The two hardworking and industry savvy individuals met as colleagues at a previous company. They discovered they had similar career aspirations, so they decided to leverage their knowledge and talents and build a business together.

“I wanted to run this company with Jason because I trust him. Our goals align in that we both want to be successful professionally,” Komula says. Martin, whose career experience includes sheet metal work and drywall installation, officially came on board several months after the company was formed. However, Komula considers him to be a Co-Founder because of his valuable contributions and steadfast support from the beginning. “He’s probably the best installer of our types of products that I’ve ever met,” Komula adds. “His role in the company is to run the crews, and the guys in the field really look up to him. I’ve been in construction a long time and I’ve never seen so many people demonstrate such respect and want to work so hard for another person.”

Komula, a 35-year-old husband and father of two, has been immersed in construction since his teens. In high school he began working as a laborer doing residential stucco and drywall work, then was promoted to estimator while pursuing a college degree in real estate development. “I’ve always loved real estate and I’ve always had an investing mind,” comments Komula, who maintains a real estate broker license and also flips houses on the side as a hobby.

When the Great Recession hit, the company that Komula worked at throughout high school and college went bankrupt, and he was laid off. He then spent five years with a small specialty carpentry contracting firm, quickly moving up the ranks from estimator to project manager due to his wealth of knowledge and skill in working with the products of his trade. Always in pursuit of new opportunities, he decided to take the savings he’d acquired through flipping houses to go into business for himself.

“I started this company a month before my son was born,” he recalls. “I still remember my first day, sitting down in my office at the new computer I had just bought and thinking to myself, ‘Now what do I do? How do I make this work?’ “ He comments further on the challenge of creating a business successful enough to sustain the livelihoods of his family and employees. “My biggest personal challenge was rapidly learning every aspect of running a business and doing what it takes to be successful,” he says. “When I initially contemplated starting a company specializing in FRP, it made sense because it’s what I knew and was comfortable with. What I didn’t truly understand was the financial strain and personal sacrifices that have to be made to run a successful construction company, especially in the commercial space. It’s expensive and time-intensive. On several occasions I invested more than my wife, Nicole, and I were comfortable with to maintain and grow our operation. We experienced a lot of successes, but there were also some rough times due to the stress. It really helped to have my wife in my corner and know that no matter what happened, she would be there for me.”

“You should never sit back and expect the work to come to you. I’m always seeking new opportunities and building relationships.” Ryan Komula, President, Pro West Wall Products, Inc.

It’s All About Relationships

According to Komula, surrounding himself with “the right people” has helped him persevere despite certain individuals telling him he would not make it in this competitive industry. Support from material vendors willing to take a risk and partner with the business when it first opened, to key hires who have been all-in since joining the company, to his wife’s assistance with human resources and other administrative tasks—it’s all come together to establishing a reputable company that has experienced phenomenal growth since its inception. “We’ve more than doubled our revenue every year since opening,” Komula says, “and at least 60% of our business is repeat.”

Never one to rest on his laurels, he has continued to leverage the people he knows in the industry, as well as The Blue Book Network and various other trade publications, to maintain a steady stream of work for his team. “You should never sit back and expect the work to come to you,” he comments. “I’m always seeking new opportunities and building relationships.”

He continues, “Our Blue Book sales rep, Geoff Turner, took an immediate interest in our company when it first launched. He knew who I was from my old company, understood immediately the kind of work we do, and offered a lot of suggestions to help us better position ourselves with our clientele, especially the more established companies. We still use Blue Book today and keep our ProView up to date.” At the time of reporting for this article, the company was also working on a redesign of its website (www.FRPWarehouse.com) to increase its reach in selling products to self-performing general contractors, drywall contractors and others.

Signature Projects

Currently, Pro West Wall Products caters to the building needs of clients in the commercial space. The company’s products and installation services have been used in K-12 schools and universities, hospitals, life sciences labs, restaurants, high-end offices, sports and entertainment venues, state and federal buildings, and more.

When asked to list some of the company’s most noteworthy projects, two in particular stand out in Komula’s mind. The first is the 
$1.4 billion Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. The new arena, situated in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco, officially opened in September 2019 after a 30-month construction effort. This world-class entertainment venue seats more than 18,000 and features a range of amenities for fans to enjoy.

Pro West Wall Products participated in this landmark project as a subcontractor to the joint venture team of Clark Construction Group and Mortenson. “The Chase Center really showcases our company’s ability to effectively coordinate and perform large-scale projects that have a very aggressive construction schedule,” Komula says. “On this project we installed FRP paneling in all the various kitchens and food/beverage prep areas.”

The other venture that put Pro West Wall Products on the map is the award-winning Dyer-Kelly Elementary School replacement project in the San Juan Unified School District. “This was a complex and high-profile project in Sacramento County where we installed various products, including FRP paneling, decorative FRL (fiberglass-reinforced laminate) paneling and custom markerboards,” Komula explains. Delivered by the design-build team of Lionakis and Clark/Sullivan Construction in just 12 months, the new two-building campus opened in time for the 2019-20 school year and serves one of the school district’s most diverse neighborhoods.

According to Komula, both of these projects required significant planning and high-level coordination on his team’s part. Because his staff executed every task seamlessly, the prominent general contracting firms on these jobs have continued to partner with Pro West Wall Products on a range of other projects.

A Vision of Expansion

No job is too big or too small for the team at Pro West Wall Products, which aims to continue expanding its geographic reach, capabilities and product offerings. “We want to become a product distributor and develop our expertise with other paneling systems,” Komula explains further. “We are also focused on forming new relationships and strengthening existing ones with material suppliers and general contractors.”

Maintaining the company’s core values of honesty, integrity and commitment will be key to achieving this ambitious vision, he adds. “I learned very quickly in this business that it’s important to focus on these values, and we have stayed top of mind with our customers due to our high degree of professionalism and solid crew of loyal and talented carpenters. These principles are essential to our workplace culture, whether in the hiring process or in forming partnerships with industry partners,” Komula emphasizes.

His drive to excel, along with the support of his talented team, motivate him to continue pressing forward and advance the company’s status in the industry. “I truly believe we have some of the best carpenters in the business,” he says. “Most of my guys have 10-plus years’ experience installing the products we offer. This gives us a huge advantage when it comes to more complex project requirements.”

He affirms, “I want to be the go-to contractor when it comes to our specialty products. There are only a few companies in Northern California that do what we do. We are thriving because of our capabilities and positive reputation, which I think proves that people want to work with us and see us succeed.”